At Night We Walk in Circles

Reviews

“Layered, gorgeously nuanced…A vibrant, ambitiously political story that derives its power from the personal. The rare lapse into abstraction quickly gives way to particulars described with devastating clarity. We are left with pure story, one that seems to question even its own motives while refusing to take sides in a world stripped of illusions.”

“A profound meditation on how identity is less a fixed substance within us, than an ever-shifting performance in reaction to a perceived audience. The unstated thesis of the novel may in fact be that we are all unknowable, even to ourselves.”

“Riveting…A fast-unraveling mystery of role-playing and retribution, told in compelling prose that is smart, subtle, and totally engrossing. Alarcón possesses Alejo Carpentier’s gift for evocative descriptions of anonymous geography, and one sees shades of Manuel Puig in the passages that recount Henry’s incarceration, both of which bode well for this native Peruvian’s bright literary future.”

“Nelson’s story is told by an unnamed narrator whose intrusions telegraph that the protagonist’s story might not end well…Alarcón recreates the tense atmosphere of what it is like to live in a country where words have consequences.”

“An involving and dramatic story in a vague yet realistic landscape. Alarcón strings the reader along expertly as he slowly complicates and shifts the perspective in this tragic tale of characters, citizens, lovers, and artists being influenced by the dangerous forces of political history and human desire.”

“As in Lost City Radio, this novel is concerned with the aftereffects of revolution and the surprising ways revolutionary rhetoric endures…Mind who you pretend to be, Alarcón suggests; the story you tell can be a surprisingly potent one. That’s true with this book too…Alarcón successfully merges themes of art, love and politics.”

“In writing about a place, its people and its history, Daniel Alarcón’s memory catches the evanescent details of everyday life, while his imagination, never for a moment blurred, creates a powerful story with so many intricate characters. This is a novel written with extraordinary vision and wisdom.”

“This is a devastatingly good novel and a masterful work by a gifted storyteller. Via the tangled lives of a small group of Peruvian actors, and in clear, compelling prose, Daniel Alarcón weaves a suspenseful tale about illusion and longing, love and denial—about all the kinds of human exile.”

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